Conventional direction of an authentication request can be to any authentication device, e.g., an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server, etc., where the authentication request comprises a known and fixed subscriber identity. However, the communication of a subscriber identity in an unencrypted manner as part of an authentication request can be generally considered a poor practice because it can allow malicious actions to be undertaken by parties that can access the unencrypted subscriber identity. Better, secured authentication is thus desired.